Cryogenica
Category: Gothic
Album: Re-Animation
Stars: 3
Blurb: A group that definitely knows how play upon their strengths, but the weaknesses are still apparent.

Formerly operating as I Am No One, Re-Animation marks the full-length debut for the band using their new moniker of Cryogenica. This London based group channels gothic overtones into a mixture of electronics and harder edged rock, but Cryogenica’s greatest asset is easily the sultry and hypnotic female vocals giving the group a feeling of classical goth and post-punk pedigree even though their music can at times betray the illusion.

“Bruised & Broken” kicks off Re-Animation with its deep churning guitar riffs and gloomy sensibilities feeling like a cross between work from Faith and the Muse and Switchblade Symphony with a harder edge. “Topaz” and “Dream” mix up the style a bit though and show the band to be teetering on the edge between more rock focused acts such as Lacuna Coil or Evanescence and a classic goth styled sound. As the balancing act plays out, the vocals act as glue holding the album together and making it feel cohesive, but even they can’t hide some of the weakly put together tracks. “Down With Me” for example just feels like a shoddily slapped together collection of noise with very little character or structure. “Dystert & Kallt” is another example of a track where the music feels like hastily laid spackle trying to fill in around the vocals. These tracks and several others feel very much like they are built around the vocals and while they are Cryogenica’s best feature, the music should elevate the vocals rather than just exist alongside them.

Re-Animation is the sort of album that shows off more what could be rather than what currently exists. Cryogenica’s potential is fully obvious in this outing, but some of the issues with song structure and composition keep this from being a must own album. It is a strong roll out of their new identity, but unfortunately, much of the latter half of the album feels like it falls apart as the music begins to feel more like incidental background noise to an a cappella performance.

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